Faces & Figures | Alex Forster, mural artist

Faces & Figures, a weekly feature of seattlepi.com’s Big Blog, aims to explore the culture of Seattle through photos accompanied with a thought, musing or quote from the people we encounter in our city. If you know an interesting person we should feature, let us know.

(Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com)

“You can really change a neighborhood with murals. But you gotta make sure the neighborhood likes the mural too,” said mural artist Alex “Cabron” Forster while working on the detail of a new mural on Northeast 45th Street in Wallingford.

Forster, a traditional muralist who recently moved to Seattle from California, likes to use a brush and pail of paint for his work. “Spray paint doesn’t hold up as well,” he said while on a ladder, adding detail on a wall outside Slave to the Needle Tattoo. The wall of the business previously was a regular victim to tagging.

“If it’s a nice image, a mural can help prevent tagging,” he said.

Forster, who has had some large works in California, is hoping to make a name for his art here in Seattle.

“Painting murals doesn’t pay my bills. I still have to work a regular job, but I like being outside. I like working on large surfaces.”

Forster said there is an organized effort to bring more art to some Seattle neighborhoods.